It's not just us at Bored Panda talking up dogs. The therapeutic value of our relationship with our pets, particularly K9s, is increasingly recognized by scientists too.

Cats can be wonderful as well – but dogs have been domesticated by humans for much longer, and, as even the most devoted cat lover will admit, dogs are far easier to train for companionship.

Marion Janner, a mental health campaigner and all-around animal lover, thinks that dogs teach us a whole range of lessons.

"Dogs love us unconditionally," she told The Guardian. "They’re the ultimate in equal opportunities – entirely indifferent to race, gender, star sign, CV, clothes size, or ability to throw cool moves on the dance floor."

"The simplicity and depth of this love is a continuous joy, along with the health benefits of daily walks and the social delights of chats with other dog walkers. They teach kids to be responsible, altruistic, and compassionate and, valuably but sadly, how to cope when someone you love dies."

On some level, the bond that forms between owner and pet is, it seems, similar to the bond that a mother forms with her baby.

According to academic and psychologist June McNicholas, pets can be a lifeline for socially isolated people. "Pet care and self-care are linked. When you take a dog out for a walk, people talk to you and that may be the only social contact an isolated person has the whole day ... People with disabilities often find that able-bodied people are socially awkward with them [but] if they have a dog it breaks down barriers and allows a more comfortable and natural interaction."

Author and researcher Meg Daley Olmert believes that when we call our dog, "our baby" it is because we recognize it on a neural level as such. And this recognition triggers the same maternal bonding brain networks that allow a mother to look at her red, slimy newborn and say, "mine!"

Interestingly, there was a small study of functional MRI brain scans that looked into 18 women and showed similar responses in regions involved in reward, emotion, and affiliation when the women looked at images of their child and pet dog.

However, there were important differences too. Dogs caused activity in the fusiform gyrus (involved in facial recognition) and babies in the tegmentum (centers of reward and affiliation). To put it simply, while we love our pets, in a fire we'd try to save the baby first.

These creatures can find a way into everyone's heart. When the Centre for Mental Health ran an evaluation on therapy dogs in prisons, the feedback was off the scale. “I don't know what it is, but even when I am running around with [the dog] I just feel better inside, calmer, more peaceful," said one prisoner

Another told the interviewer that "Dogs have a magic effect on you, you can feel their love and that just makes you feel better inside you."